Four members of the Bermuda Philharmonic Society paired their music with four works of art at Masterworks.

Last week’s performance began with William Wegman’s Around Bermuda. A collection of Bermuda postcards served as the centrepiece for his work; the cards date from the 1960s and 1970s when the island’s tourist industry was at its zenith. Each postcard contained the postmark “The isles of rest”.

It was subtle move to choose for the music three movements from Bach’s 1741 Goldberg Variations which were especially commissioned to give “cheerful and restful thoughts”, and induce sleep. The opening aria and first two variations were played as a string trio which gave added emotive depth and tenderness to what is generally played as a solo harpsichord piece.

Anna Mao painted Pond with the Philharmonic concert in mind. The art is a study of a turquoise koi pond with beautifully executed, refractive patterns rippling over three languid, insouciant fish, one of whom is pushing her/his mouth out of the water.

Two other fish swim round and round each other; a frog watches from a lily pad and a dragonfly hovers.

An understated, unrealised and yet elegant chain of natural predation is hinted at in these circular forms: frog, fish, fish, frog; dragonfly, fish, frog.

The music was the rondeau from Mozart’s Flute Quartet in A Major, K 298, with an impossible, micromanaging composer’s instruction quoted by Kate Kayaian: “A joke rondo: allegretto grazioso but not too fast, nor too slow; so-so, with great elegance and expression.”

Antoine Hunt’s award-winning diptych Coming and Going is a minimalist yet powerful work. It hints at profound cosmological truth in the form of the blue (coming) and red (going) spectral shifting in the void.

Because of the position of the viewer at the exact changeover spot between coming and going, it includes all our space and time as well.

The music chosen to accompany the work was the final movement of minimalist composer Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror).

Over Ryan Beauchamp’s unhurried, exquisite pizzicato chord triads, Kayaian’s cello wove a series of simple yet profoundly nuanced, deeply emotive phrases which always returned to the mediant of Beauchamp’s chord.

While the message was existential, the effect of the music was more transcendental. For me, this physical Infinity blended into spirituality.

Michael McBride’s acrylic City Hall, Hamilton, Bermuda dates from 2005 when the Tennessee-based artist came to the island as Masterworks’ artist-in-residence.

It’s a bright mixture of African/ Haitian style and colour within updated architectural cubism. Subtle shading and colour gradation gives implied movement to Wil Onions’ signature building.

The music was the final movement of German composer Max Reger’s 1904 String Trio No 1 in A Minor.

Angular, emphatic and vivid, the music “pushed the boundaries of tonality”, explained Kayaian.

The overall effect was mercurial and multi-mood. Tango-like beats gave way to a series of declamatory unison phrases which in turn changed to quarter-note shadings almost like an Indian classical.

The music paused as if to gather breath before ending in a subtle darkness.

• The Art of Music took place at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art on Thursday with Bermuda Philharmonic Society members Edward Rance on flute; Lei Jin on violin, Ryan Beauchamp on viola and Kate Kayaian on cello